We have breakfast at Paul’s and hit the road. The drive into Glacier is gorgeous.

We pause at Marias Pass where the CDT crosses the road. Burrr it’s cold! Snow flurries fill the air, quite the shock coming from LA!

We pass through East Glacier and spot several groups of hikers on the road, they must be just arriving off the Amtrak train! (Because they look so clean haha)

I’m excited to meet other hikers! I’m hoping to find some cool gals to hike with 😎

We take a hot chocolate break at St Mary Lodge Resort. There are many visitors from all over the world. It’s fun people watching.

It’s nice that anyone can experience the park, it’s so accessible.

We continue our drive to Many Glacier. The scenery keeps getting better and better.

Arriving at the Many Glacier Hotel feels like stepping back in time. Absolutely breathtaking.

We grab some lunch. My stomach is much better! I’m able to finish a full burger! What a relief. I need those calories!

Paul and my mom are rockstars and drive me over the the Many Glacier ranger station to get my walk up permits.

Glacier National Park requires permitted camping. You can reserve your campsites in advance, however they quickly get full. Thankfully the park reserves 30% of the sites for ‘walk up’ campers (where you show up ready to camp the day of or the day before).

That’s what I’m doing. Having missed the window to make reservations, my only option is to obtain a walk up permit.

I’ve never done this before and it was a little stressful just showing up, not knowing how many nights (and therefor how much food) I would need for the park. Or if I would have to hangout for days waiting for spots to open up. A leap of faith, have you.

Well, I had a great experience.

The rangers were incredibly friendly. It definitely helped that I came prepared with a campsite wish list.

Most of the sites I wanted weren’t available and the rangers helped brain storm what my best options were. One site I have to hike 5 miles off the CDT then back, another is banking on the hiker biker spot being open (fingers crossed). My shortest milage day is 4.9 miles (a painting day!) and my longest day is 25, over a pass (a hustle day haha).

Apparently they have a larger than normal number of CDT hikers coming through right now. A lot of people flipping up north who were hiking in the south or people coming from the Pacific Crest Trail.

Once I was happy with my itinerary, the rangers had me watch a 15 min video on park safety. It was pretty well produced! Lots of bear pov camera work, very fun.

They asked me a few questions about the video and, voila! Permits acquired!

Thank you Many Glacier park rangers!

It feels good to have my campsites settled for the next few days.

We go back and check into the Many Glacier Hotel. The rooms are cozy and make me feel like we’re in olden times. We have a balcony with a view of the lake! Just wow.

The rest of the day is spent exploring.

We have dinner and I eat a large portion of pasta.

And watch the sunset across the peaks.

Can’t believe I’ll be on trail tomorrow!

I’ll likely have poor cell service for the next few days. I’ll post when I can!